Sunday, 30 October 2016

Moose Toys
have been around since 1985, producing all manner of novelties and kid’s toys.
When I was a kid in the mid-90s, they were probably best known for their wide
variety of Yo-Yos (which came in a whole array of shapes, sizes and scents) and
the Amazing Live Sea Monkeys.

To be
honest, they weren’t a huge brand
when I was a kid. They pumped out a lot of product, but while it sold
respectably, very little of it seemed to capture the childhood zeitgeist. Until
a few years ago, when they hit it REALLY big with a couple of blind-bagged
toylines – Trash Pack and Shopkins, which helped take the company
to a whole new level of success.

The Trash
Pack brand has been off the market for a year or so, but it’s now returned with
a sequel/reboot series in the form of Grossery
Gang. Taking the concept of cutesy, anthropomorphic garbage and applying it
to food instead, Grossery Gang’s key conceit isn’t departing radically from the
original theme, but I think this is a good case of releasing a new product that
still maintains a good understanding of what made the original so popular.

Grossery
Gang are sold in a whole variety of different blind-boxed formats (the cereal
box is especially cool) but I suppose you would call the Crusty Chocolate Bar this
the entry level or booster pack format. Each Crusty Chocolate Bar sells for 3
or 4 bucks, and features two Grossery Gang characters. It’s a good pricepoint
in comparison to other blind-boxed/bagged formats like Lego Minifigures, and
the packaging itself is great.

After
opening the wrapper -- which looks better than most real chocolate bars -- you’ll be treated to a moulded plastic chocolate bar that
features the Grossery Gang logo, and some insects crawling over the surface.
Viewed from a distance, it also looks a lot like a poo, which I’m sure at least
partially intentional. There’s also a checklist, which is designed to look like
a supermarket receipt. There are tons of different designs, each of which
appears to be made in two different colourways. Rarity is ranked as Common,
Rare, Ultra-Rare, Special Edition and Limited Edition. Some of them look
similar to previous Trash pack designs, but I don’t think they’re straight
reuse – more like reinventions of prior concepts.

Inside, the
two characters ("Grosserys") are individually wrapped – I got a Rot Hot Chili (ultra-rare)
and Fungus Fries (common). You’ll see that Rot Hot looks kind of fuzzy in the
pic below, but it’s not out of focus; he’s got a fuzzy finish to appear mouldy.
He’s also cast in a harder plastic than Fungus Fries, who is very soft and
squishy like a pencil topper. I assume that most other Grosserys are cast in the softer plastic, but will have to update once I've picked up some more.

Trash Pack
kind of passed me by, but it always looked like great fun – I’m sure I would
have bought an obscene amount of them if they’d been round when I was a little kid.
Grossery Gang serves as a nice reboot to the line, and a great jumping on point
for those new to the brand. Highly recommended for kid and adult collectors
alike.

Monday, 24 October 2016

Freddy Krueger – in a world of mute murderers like Michael
Myers, Jason Voorhees and Leatherface, he stands out as one of the most
distinctive villains from the slasher era. I mean, Pinhead has a bit to say for
himself, but he's distinctly less...amusing...in the process.

More than 30 years after his cinematic debut in A
Nightmare on Elm Street, he’s still incredibly popular. He may not have had
a film in the cinemas for a while, but the plethora of Freddy merch littering
the shelves suggests that there’s still a substantial fanbase out there. Will
we see Robert Englund play him again? Probably
not, but the character lives on nonetheless.

Unlike Jason, Freddy's basic costume really hasn't changed a whole lot over the years, but he does sometimes find himself in kill-specific get-ups from time to time. So t

his
Mystery Mini is based on a very specific scene in Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors. In the dream world,
Freddy encounters Taryn, who’s
dressed like she’s some kind of enemy in Double
Dragon. Was the 80s the raddest decade of the 20th century?
Most signs point to yes. Anyway, Taryn used to be some kind of drug addict, so
Freddy turns his fingers into syringes and injects her with some kind of blue
substance – presumably heroin, but it’s never actually specified in the film –
and she shuffles off this mortal coil.

This figure
replicates the effect nicely enough – each of his fingers and claws is a blue
syringe, topped with a silver spike. The sculptors have also done a nice job of
adding little details to a fairly simple design, such as ragged edges and dirty
stains on the pants and jumper. Good job Funko!

Given that the Mystery Minis format has been a little more experimental than the POPs, it would be nice if we eventually got some of the human characters -- at least a Nancy! Taryn's design would be particularly good for this format too, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Overall, this take on Freddy is
a cool, unusual version of an iconic horror villain – but he’s packed at a 1/72
ratio, which means you may well have a pain of a time trying to track him down.
On that basis, he’s fun for those who missed the regular Freddy in Series 1,
but certainly not essential.

Saturday, 22 October 2016

I saw the
2010 version of The Wolfman some
years ago, but it was actually only a few weeks ago that I actually saw the
1941 original The Wolf Man. Its reputation precedes it, of course – I read a ton of books on
special effects as a kid, and the Wolf Man featured prominently in virtually
all of them.

The
original film isn’t really a horror movie in the sense you might think of in
this day and age. It’s not terribly scary, but it is quite depressing. A man falls victim to a curse through no real
fault of his own, has minimal control over his subsequent behaviour and ends up
getting killed. Most
werewolf films since have followed some variation of this theme – at least
until Dog Soldiers. And though I
didn’t enjoy it quite as much as The
Mummy and Creature From The Black
Lagoon, it’s still very well-made and it’s great to see where a lot of
modern werewolf lore originated.

So let’s take a look at the figure!

Now, I
think we all know that Lon Chaney Jr didn’t look much like a wolf in the
original movie. He was some kind of hybrid form; stuck somewhere between man
and beast. Thematically it worked well in the movie, but this figure…well, it’s
certainly not a bad one. I quite like it, actually. But the stylised nature of
Mystery Minis has rendered him looking a bit more like a weremonkey than a
werewolf. Take away the black on the nose and you’ll see what I mean.

Nonetheless,
it’s always nice to have another Universal Monster on the shelf. I think this
is an occasion where the original POP outdoes the Mystery Mini take, but it’s
still well worth your time and money. You shouldn’t have too much trouble
finding him, as he’s packed at a 1/6 ratio – so there are two in every case.

Wednesday, 19 October 2016

Teen Titans Go! seems to have gotten a very…mixed reception. Though it’s something of an informal sequel to the very
well-received 2003 Teen Titans TV
series, it’s very different in tone. I haven’t ever seen an episode of either,
so I’ll decline to comment on that controversy – but I did read quite a bit of
the 1980s Teen Titans comic series
when I was a teen myself.

I had mixed
feelings about it. Robin headed up the team, and I’ve always hated Robin, particularly
in his pre-pants era. But it had great art, and it was very well-written – all of
the characters had distinct personalities, and it introduced the world to
Deathstroke the Terminator. In hindsight, it was way better than I ever realised at the time.

Nonetheless,
Raven was always one of the cooler characters among the Titans. In those
earlier days her backstory wasn’t quite as fleshed out as it is today; over
time, she’s kind of become DC’s answer to Jean Grey. While they’re very
distinct in execution, but you can definitely see some common threads –
insanely powerful teenage girl, possession by some sort of ridiculously
powerful entity, a death and eventual resurrection…I think you can see where this
is going.

Her
standard look has remained reasonably consistent through the years; a hood and
cloak masking her features. Sometimes she wears a jumpsuit, sometimes a dress
and sometimes a leotard, but it’s virtually always some variation on these
themes. The new series has kind of turned her into a more traditional
goth/crust punk type, but we’ll see how long that lasts. However, originally
she was quite strange-looking under the hood, with an oversized
forehead and a pronounced widow’s peak. This was a deliberate move by
then-artist George Perez to slowly change her features as part of a storyline,
but more recent interpretations have tended to keep her a little more conventionally
pretty.

But back to
the review – this POP! is apparently based on an episode where the Teen Titans visit
the Hall of Justice to use the pool, but end up having to fight Darkseid. Each
of the Titans “becomes” a member of the Justice League – Robin becomes Batman,
Cyborg becomes Green Lantern, etc. You can see the full “cast” on the pic of
the back of the box.

I like the
POP design much more than I like the actual
animation model, which is quite a rare thing. The blank eyes match Raven’s
character quite well, and the proportions are strangely less distorted than the
cartoon. Paint is fine; it could be a little tighter in spots, but it’s
certainly not bad.

With Raven’s new solo
series just launched back in September, it’s an ideal time to pick up this
figure. I don’t plan to pick up any of the other figures in the run, but it’s
good to see the Teen Titans back on shelves – the original POPs released a few
years ago are all discontinued and go for silly money these days. For myself, I’ve
purchased it more out of my Wonder Woman fandom, but it’s definitely a fun
variant. Hopefully we get a comic-based POP of Raven (and the rest
of the Teen Titans) in the near future.

Monday, 17 October 2016

My parents
– in hindsight – were not especially strict, particularly in comparison to some
of my friends. But like all parents, they wanted to instil a certain set of
values into me – and as such, most horror-related material was treated with a deep
suspicion.

And few
names were more synonymous with horror than STEPHEN KING. Back in the 1990s, he
was arguably at the height of his commercial (if not creative) powers.
Bookstores were stuffed with his wares, and video stores seemed to overflow
with filmic adaptations of his works. Being a keen reader from a young age, I
was naturally very curious about him – but parental authority steered me away
from him until I was a teenager. Probably wisely, in hindsight, though it was
frustrating at the time.

In the long
term, the parental admonition against horror didn’t work. What did I do as soon
as I was old enough? Went out and read a ton of Stephen King books, and
watched scores of horror films. I love both to this day -- and one of the best
adaptations of King's work is The Shining, from Stanley Kubrick.

Stephen
King was not thrilled with this adaptation. Having subsequently read the novel,
I can kind of understand why, as it deviates from the source material on many
important points. But I enjoyed it myself; the pace was probably just a little too slow for my
tastes, but it was definitely bizarre and memorable. And its influence has been
undeniable – every TV show on the planet of every genre seems to want to do
some kind of tribute to scene with the twins at one point or another.

This
Mystery Mini does a reasonable job of replicating Jack Nicholson’s Here's Johnny look in the
film -- the check shirt, red jacket, jeans, maniacal expression, and of course
the axe. It doesn’t look like Jack Nicholson specifically, but that’s just the
nature of the aesthetic –and at a glance, he could fit in reasonably well with
the humans from the Walking Dead Mystery
Minis too. My only real criticism is related to the hair. Jack Nicholson has never
gone totally bald, but even by the time of The
Shining it was looking pretty thin – though again, this is probably just a
side-effect of the aesthetic.

Overall?
Jack Torrance isn’t my favourite figure in the series, but there isn’t a ton of
merch for The Shining out there.
Given that we also got the Twins in this series, I assume we’ll get Danny soon
too – viewed in combination, that would be a fun set.

Friday, 14 October 2016

Titans Return continues to throw up more awesome toys, and
today we take a look at another awesome Decepticon* – Apeface!

Black and
purple Decepticons are my favourite. And as with all the Titan Masters, there’s
four modes – the head, the Titan Master on his own, robot mode (in this case, a
gorilla-bot) and combined vehicle mode (a jet). All of them work reasonably
well, and it’s actually a bit of a shame that we’re not seeing this guy in
deluxe size. In jet mode, he looks like a mini-Skywarp, which means I’m 99%
guaranteed to love it.

My only
real criticism is that he doesn’t stand quite right in his gorilla-bot mode,
but you can fudge the effect well enough. And this brings us to the most
important question of all – in light of this year’s most popular meme, should we be calling this guy Harambot?

Tuesday, 11 October 2016

Batgirl
occupies a strange place in the DC canon. Though she’s extremely high profile
from a merchandising perspective, the classic character that you tend to think
of when the word “Batgirl”is said didn’t really exist for 20+ years. Instead,
Barbara Gordon was occupying the role of Oracle after the events of The Killing Joke, back in the late
1980s.

Nonetheless,
merchandise is a power driver…so waaaaay back in 2010 when POPs were first
debuting, Batgirl was one of the first DC girls produced. Which is very cool,
but she’s no longer in production (though
the mould is still being used) and now sells for an obscene amount of money
on the aftermarket. So good luck getting hold of one! More
recently there’s been a “Batgirl of Burnside” POP produced, which is a great
look – but I haven’t read the comics it’s based on, and it’s not really the
classic look that I tend to prefer for my POP shelf.

This costume
is based on her original costume, apparently, it’s also quite similar to one of
her New 52 costumes, sans armour plating. It’s not really a familiar look to me
– by the time I was really old enough to be reading comics, Barbara had been
turned into Oracle, so that’s how I’ve kind of always known her. And when I did
come across the odd reprint or compilation that featured Batgirl, it was almost
inevitably the gray/blue suit. That said, it’s a really stylish look, and makes
sense in light of the whole…well, Bat thing.

The paint is adequate, but not perfect. It's reminiscent of Funko's mid-period work -- not totally sloppy, but definitely not amazing, either. Still, it looks decent at a distance. Also, she doesn't stand all that well on her own -- but she does come with a stand, so that's good. In my case, she'll be staying in the box so it becomes a bit of a moot point anyway.

This POP is
an NYCC exclusive, but I had a lot less trouble getting hold of Batgirl than I
did any of last year’s SDCC (stupid rare flocked Wolfman!) or NYCC exclusives. Popcultcha’s
website didn’t seem to crash, and my local bookstore had plenty of these
available. How long they’ll last is anyone’s guess – but in Sydney at least,
certain POPs seem to hang round for months afterwards.

That said,
if you miss out – don’t panic. Given that the original’s no longer around, I
will be very surprised if we don’t get this mould in grey and blue in the near
future as a regular release. Which I may also have to pick up…

Wednesday, 5 October 2016

Since 2014, The Robot's Pajamas has been running Horror Month each October -- the basic theme being that in the lead-up to Halloween, they publish a review of a horror film each day of the month.

Now regular readers might...just might...have noticed that I'm quite fond of horror. So when they put out the call back in 2014, I decided to volunteer my services, and contributed a review of Creature From the Black Lagoon, which you can read here should you feel so inclined.

I missed 2015, but I've returned for this year with a review of The Beyond -- an weird Italian classic from 1981, recommended for gore aficionados and H.P. Lovecraft fans. It's quite a...different experience. To find out more, just click to read my full review.

Hope you enjoy it -- and have a look around The Robot's PJs site as well. If you like my site, you'll probably love theirs.

Horror hosts aren’t really a thing over here in Australia,
but it seems there was a time where every local TV station in the USA had one of
their own. Typically serving as campy gateway figures to introduce audiences to
crappy old horror and sci-fi films, in many cases they’re more entertaining
than the actual films they were hosting. A handful went on to become
international celebrities, like Vampira – though to be fair, a lot of that
really had to do with her work with Ed Wood.

But probably the best-known to horror fans the world over is
the subject of today’s review – Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. Until I sat down
to write this review I’d never watched any of her stuff, but I was familiar
with her by reputation. But a couple of YouTube videos confirmed pretty much
what I expected – silly comments about the films being shown, bad puns and
double entendres. But she does it with more style and panache than many of her
host contemporaries; I do plan to check her film, Elvira: Mistress of the Dark,out at some point.

Elvira has made the transition to Mystery Mini in a much better
form than Slimer. With her signature beehive,
high-cut dress and risqué top, there’s no doubt about who this is. They’ve even
managed to tatter her sleeves in the sculpt! Additionally, little touches like
the detailed eye makeup and fingernails clearly demonstrate that Funko is quite
capable of doing good paintwork – it’s just a shame that more of it doesn’t
find its way to their POPs.

Speaking of which, Elvira does have a POP on the way soon
too; I’m torn as to whether it will make

its way into my collection as yet, but
it does look well-executed.

Overall, I have no real complaints about Elvira as a figure.
My only issue with her lies in her rarity, or lack thereof. She’s a 1/6 figure, which means
there’s two of her in each case. I think this is a little excessive, and it’s a
bummer that as a result some other figures that might otherwise have been 1/12 – Imhotep, for instance – have been pushed to 1/24. But Funko’s rarity
works in mysterious ways; hopefully there will be a better breakdown for series
4.

Monday, 3 October 2016

Today we take a look at a new release from Funko – Series 3 of the Horror
Classics Mystery Minis have hit the shelves, and this time I decided to kind of
avoid the whole kerfuffle of searching in-store for individual figures by just
ordering a box.

There’s
been some interesting choices of characters this time, with the emphasis
heavily on classic/retro horror – only Twisty the Clown (American Horror Story: Freak Show) and Patrick Bateman (American Psycho) are from media released
in the last twenty years.

But Slimer
is possibly the most curious inclusion; Ghostbusters
is a horror film, I guess, but something about this doesn’t seem quite right.
He didn’t do a whole lot in the original movie, but he was a pretty focal point
in the cartoon spin-off, which was very much geared towards kids. I liked it
when I was young, but I’m sure it would drive me up the wall these days. Still,
I guess it’s cool to see them going for left-of-field choices.

So,
basically this is Slimer, but Mystery Minified. You can tell it’s him, but it
does feel oddly generic, like a knock-off rather than an official product.
Maybe that’s because we’re only seeing him in isolation, rather than with, say,
the Librarian Ghost or a Stay Puft Man. Maybe future series will correct this?

In spite of
this somewhat generic feel, Funko have obviously put a lot of care into him.
His slimy base is a separate piece, cast in translucent plastic rather than
just making him all one colour. The paint apps on his teeth and tongue are nicely executed too. Also, his but is oddly detailed – was the
original puppet like that? I can’t remember, but it is oddly fitting for the
character.

I was kind of...bummed out...that this figure wasn't better

Overall? Not
bad, but I’d be disappointed if I’d picked him out of a blind box solo. The
other figures in this series are great, and Slimer suffers by comparison as a
result. For my US readers, there is a
Hot Topic exclusive version of this series, and the Slimer in that set glows in
the dark. It’s a shame they didn’t make this standard, but at least it wasn’t
something ridiculous like a 1/72 chase or something. Glow makes everything
cooler, and I imagine it’s no exception for this figure.